


My Cocky Neighbor

by GobsmackApplejack



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Crack, Fanfiction Cockyweek, M/M, Werewolf Reveal, chicken dialogue, cockygate, mention of chicken choking fantasies, misuse of city ordinance terms, over aggressive deputy gun waving and threatening, overall unprofessional deputy behavior, overuse of the word cock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-28
Updated: 2018-05-28
Packaged: 2019-05-14 23:13:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14779115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GobsmackApplejack/pseuds/GobsmackApplejack
Summary: Derek’s new neighbor is loud, obnoxious and cocky.  And his neighbor’s owner is hot.





	My Cocky Neighbor

**Author's Note:**

> This is my contribution to Fanfiction Cockyweek. You can read about the controversy [here](https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/992868032467812352.html). I figure a ridiculous controversy deserves a ridiculous fic to protest it.

  
  


Derek gasped and sat bolt upright in bed, startled out of sleep by who knows what. He strained his ears, but the house was silent. But… it was the type of silence that echoed with the memory of a sudden loud noise made just seconds ago.

He blinked, tuning in all his senses. It was still dark out. The glowing digits of the clock on his nightstand read 5:18 am - more than an hour and a half before he intended to wake up. He groaned and threw back the covers. This was just one of the drawbacks of living in close proximity to other people.

Being a werewolf he had been careful when he first moved into town, about keeping the windows closed at night. Having lived in the isolated quiet of the preserve growing up, and then in New York where the noise was so ubiquitous and constant it became a dull background hum, noise had never really been a problem.

But the previous summer’s stifling heat had necessitated sleeping with open windows and Derek found that he acclimated to the modest suburban noises easily. Dogs barking, cars driving past and the familiar sounds of neighbors’ voices no longer roused him from sleep. Now he left the windows open whenever the weather allowed, preferring the fresh air and ambient noise to being in an enclosed space in silence.

He looked around and listened carefully to see if there were any noises in or around the house, to find the source of what had woken him so abruptly.

One memorable time his water heater had burst and luckily the sound of splashing water roused him before there was too much damage. Sometimes his neighbor’s adult son would come home at odd hours, occasionally drunk and fumbling. But his wolf recognized Justin’s heartbeat and movements now and didn’t even stir when he crashed into the hedges.

Overall the neighborhood was a quiet one. He’d picked it because the houses weren’t too close together like most suburban developments. His surrounding neighbors were elderly and the house next door was even empty, the couple previously living there having moved to southern California to be near their grandchildren. 

His ears perked at a distant scratching sound and then he had to quickly tamp down his wolf hearing because a  _ rooster _ started  _ crowing. _ No, not even crowing. It was screeching. There was definitely something off, something damaged about the rooster’s call.

He growled lowly and leapt to the window, thrusting his head outside to look around.

Quieter clucking followed and then another loud, strangled crow. And another. The sounds were definitely coming from the vacant house. Had someone left the yard open and a feral rooster made its way inside?

He didn’t see the bird from his window so decided to go outside to check it out. It wasn’t like he had any hope of falling back asleep. He was almost tempted to jump out the window but thought better of it as he would have a hard time getting back in - the house was locked up for the night.

He made his way downstairs, not even bothering to put on shoes, and out the front door, jumping off the front porch. He immediately spotted the silhouette of a rooster perched on the neighbor’s roof. It crowed again.

An upstairs window slid open just below it and a head poked out, twisting upwards to face the bird on the roof.

“Cocky! Be quiet. This is no way to endear ourselves to our new neighbors!” The words were whisper-shouted up at the rooster by, apparently, Derek’s new neighbor. It was more shout than whisper, though, and would certainly have woken him if he hadn’t been already up.

“Cocky! Come down here. I’ll feed you. Just. Be quiet!”

“It might have helped if you had him inside overnight.” Derek made sure to inject the appropriate amount of surliness into his voice. Not too much - to start a neighbor feud already, but not too little so that it might be mistaken for friendliness.

“Yaaah!” new neighbor shouted at full volume, startle-jerked his head, banging it into the window sash and then flail-twisted around to face Derek. He clutched his forehead and rubbed the injury.

“The fu- What are y- Who-” New Neighbor stuttered partial sentences at him until he seemed to collect himself. “You can’t keep a rooster  _ inside!  _ That’s just... stupid!” He was still holding his hand to his forehead, arm covering half of his face.

“Well, sorry I don’t know the ins and outs of animal husbandry. But maybe you’ll forgive me since I live in  _ the suburbs.”  _ Derek went for disdain this time.

“Ha, yeah. You, suburbanite.” New Neighbor pointed at Derek with his free hand. “Me-” he pointed at himself, “experienced cock handler. So.” He waved his hand around. “Don’t go telling me how to handle my cock.”

Derek lifted, what he would like to think was an unimpressed eyebrow, but was probably more baffled. “Well, seeing that you have moved  _ into the suburbs _ , where houses are built  _ close together _ , maybe you would have thought twice about bringing your cock with you.”

New Neighbor sputtered.

“You don’t separate a man from his cock!” 

“Why the fuck not? It’s a public disturbance and a noise issue! Hens are acceptable. Roosters are not. If this happens again I will file a complaint.”

He turned around and stomped back to his house. The quitely muttered “I fucking dare you.” was not lost to his ears.

So. That was how this was going to be.

Derek went back inside and started his coffee and breakfast in the near dark, resigned to an early start to his day. The rooster kept crowing at about half hour intervals until the sun was fully up, and then it made quieter clucking sounds as it moved around the yard throughout the morning and afternoon. Derek worked from home as a digital content reviewer, so there was no escaping this shit of a situation. He daydreamed for a bit about catching the cock and wringing its neck.

He sighed. Not that he hadn’t killed his share of small game, but this was someone’s pet. He wouldn’t resort to violence. Yet. As long as his new neighbor came up with a solution, he could roll with it.

xXx

It happened again the next morning. And then the next. He started going to sleep earlier, due to the sleep deprivation so had pretty much shifted his schedule, but it still rankled. 

He didn’t even go outside when it happened anymore. Just stuck his head out his window and yelled something, each morning slightly more grumpy and threatening: “You need to do something about your rooster!” Or, “You are going to take care of that stupid bird or we are going to have a problem.” And, “I’m going to take matters into my own hands soon!”

“Oh, fucking’ bite me.” The response was muttered, so New Neighbor clearly didn’t intend for Derek to hear it. But he did. And he was livid.

That morning, instead of logging in to check for any new assignments, he took a few hours off to go to the police station to file a noise complaint.

The deputy at the front desk was a young woman who blushed when he smiled at her. She got out the forms for him to fill out and then started asking questions.

Was this a complaint for his neighborhood? Yes. Where did he live?

“1529 Romas Lane.” Derek rattled off. He wasn’t sure what the neighbor’s house number was, but he was sure the station would be able to find that information.

“Oh.” The deputy looked at him with wide eyes. “Is this about the old Franklin residence?”

“Yes!” Derek smiled even wider, glad in this instance he lived in a small town. People knew people. The Sheriff’s station knew his neighborhood and would help him out with the obviously new in town, obnoxious jerk who didn’t know how to get along with neighbors. Maybe he came from a city where apartments were isolated and impersonal boxes and the noise of traffic and sirens was such that a rooster crowing at ass-o’clock in the morning would blend right in.

“Yes, the new resident has a rooster and it crows in the morning at, like, 5:30. And then every half hour for another couple of hours. It’s happened four nights - I mean mornings - in a row. I even suggested he keep the rooster indoors but he said that was a stupid idea. I’m just… I can’t get a full night’s sleep and it’s affecting my work. I work from home.”

“Heh. Okay. Well. Maybe you can talk with him?” She looked sheepish for some reason.

“No. Like I said, I made a suggestion and he called me stupid. He’s very… antagonistic. He’s not open to talking.”

She pursed her lips and exhaled slowly. “Well. Let’s. Let’s ask, shall we?” She stood up from her chair and walked through the door separating the lobby from the rest of the station.

Derek stood there unsure what to do. She went to the back of the station. Was New Neighbor in a jail cell back there or something?

A few moments later he heard whispering right behind the door. Nothing clear enough to understand, but the shadows cast on the frosted glass showed arms waving about wildly.

Then a clear, grumpy, “Fine!” 

Derek was shocked when New Neighbor came through the door in a sheriff’s deputy uniform.  His dark brown hair was over-gelled into a ridiculous mess, but his lean build and wide shoulders filled in the uniform to great advantage. He stood there with his hands on his hips, eyebrow quirked at Derek expectantly, clearly irritated.

Fuck. How had Derek not noticed how hot New Neighbor was that night? Aside from the darkness, which shouldn’t have been a factor to his werewolf vision, he was standing literal feet, though a building story up from him and he didn’t see the pale skin, ski-jump nose and mole dotted cheeks, the long fingers and sinewy forearms. The one thing maring the picture of, honestly, Derek’s exact type were the dark circles under his eyes. No doubt from being woken every morning at 5:18 am.

Thinking about sleep reminded Derek of why he was here in the first place.

“I wanted to… Your bird is creating a Noise Disturbance and you need to make it stop.”

“Uh. Yeah. That’s the thing. He’s getting acclimated to his new home and will settle down. In a bit.”

“How. Long. Will. That. Be.” Derek gritted out.

“Oh. A couple…” New Neighbor looked up and noticed Derek’s glare and his eyes widened, “... days.”

Derek turned to the clerk. “Isn’t there a law against keeping roosters in a suburban home?”

She nervously shuffled the papers on her desk. “Um. Not as such. No. Beacon Hills was quite rural for a good long time, so there wouldn’t be any laws like that. Unless it came up more recently.” She looked askance.

“So yeah. It’ll just be a couple more days. Hang in there and… uh. Be a good neighbor.” The deputy punched the air, almost like he was trying to give Derek a punch on the shoulder but was standing five feet too far.

Derek fumed, having heard the stutter in his neighbor’s heartbeat. Plus, the front desk deputy’s heartbeat wasn't the steadiest either. While she didn’t tell an outright lie, it was definitely a sign that he was getting the run-around here. Stupid New Neighbor and his stupid sheriff’s force friends. It was pretty clear the whole station would be on his side, would lie to defend him. Derek tried to tamp down on his bitterness, seeing the futility of his situation.

He’d never thought this before on his own behalf, but, seriously? Fuck the Police.

He scowled and nodded curtly to Officer… he squinted at the name tag on his neighbor’s chest. Stilinski. Shit. So, Stupid Neighbor was related to the Sheriff. Even better.

He willed himself not to roll his eyes, gritted his teeth in a semblance of a smile, then turned on his heel and walked out.

xXx

When he got back to his house he went over to the fence and peeked over. The aptly named rooster was strutting around the yard, scratching and pecking at the ground. There was a pretty good sized coop set up in the near corner. Even if there was some way of locking the rooster inside the coop at night, Derek would probably hear it crowing anyway.

He saw the cock looking over a him curiously and out of sheer pettiness, he flashed his eyes at it.

Cocky let out a strangled crow and ran behind some bushes. Derek huffed in satisfaction and went inside to get some work done.

Over the next week Derek tried to adjust his work schedule to accommodate this new…  _ infringement _ , but it proved futile. His work as a streaming service quality content checker necessitated watching videos and paying close attention to dialogue. The crowing made him turn the volume higher, but then he would get a headache and have to turn it down. More often than not, he would have to rewind parts that he missed due to the distracting sounds. It made him very unproductive. Sure, he had noise canceling headphones, but something about blocking out all ambient sounds made his wolf bristle. It felt like a bad move safety-wise.

He started going over every morning to look over the fence, flashing his eyes at Cocky and only then starting work. The daily “warning” seemed to help a bit to keep the rooster in check.

Until one day he was working steadily away when he heard unmistakeable claws scratching on his front porch. 

Oh for crying out loud.

He stomped to the front door and ripped it open. Cocky was there on his doormat, looking up at him in surprise. He let out a couple tentative bawks.

“What.” Derek mentally rolled his eyes at himself for talking to a rooster.

Cocky scratched his feet a few times on the mat, then took a couple steps forward.

“No.” Derek moved to block his doorway.

Cocky blinked at him. Derek was reminded of Hei hei, the rooster from Moana. It reinforced to him that he probably should not try to reason with a dumb animal. As he was ruminating on the bird’s intelligence level, said bird somehow scooted past him.

“Cocky! Get out!” Derek turned and yelled, trying to catch him before he got too far into the house. But Cocky was too fast, even for werewolf speed. He found Cocky upstairs, in his office, sitting on his desk chair. He looked like he had settled in comfortably, body mass spreading around him in sort of a puddle.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“Buk buk.”

“Is it because you don’t get enough attention at home? Your… deputy not spending enough time with you?”

“Buk.”

“He’s... I’m sure he’s busy. You know. Serving and protecting.”

“Buk.”

“So, can I get some work done today?”

“Buk.”

Derek approached the rooster cautiously. He reached out to try to pick it up but Cocky darted his beak to try and peck at the approaching hand. Derek recoiled and flashed his eyes in warning. Cocky froze, then tipped his head. Was he. Was he baring his neck?

Derek reached out again and this time Cocky allowed himself to be picked up. Derek sat down in his chair placing Cocky in his lap, and was able to work the rest of the day, with only minor interruptions: Stretching, food and bathroom breaks for himself and exploration and outdoor breaks for Cocky.

Late in the evening Derek heard the faint voice of Deputy Stilinski calling, “Cocky! I’m home!” Derek sighed and stood up, stretching, and scratching at his beard scruff. Cocky was currently downstairs, so Derek went to find him and made a ‘follow me’ gesture as he walked to the front door. He held it open and Cocky saw himself out.

Distantly Derek heard neighbor’s surprised, “Oh, there you are! I thought the Evil Neighbor Dude had kil- uh, kidnapped you.” Derek glared at nothing in particular, but being accused of killing an innocent bird? What a jerk. He continued to listen in to sounds of Deputy Stilinski bumbling around in the kitchen. “Who wants mealworms?!”

Derek shook his head and made a mental note to pick up some mealworms from the pet store the next time he went into town.

That was their pattern for the next few days. Cocky would scratch at the door in the morning, Derek would let him in. He would explore the house for a bit while Derek worked at his desk. Around mid-morning, Cocky would come into the office and cluck until Derek picked him up. He sat in Derek’s lap in shifts, both taking breaks every now and then. Derek started leaving his back door open so that Cocky could wander in and out on his own. When he heard his neighbor getting back from work, he’d open the front door and Cocky would walk himself home.

It was nice. Derek had always thought about getting a pet, but never actually followed through with that idea. A dog would be nice; he had several growing up. But since he was on his own, getting a dog would feel like a inferior substitute for pack, and might actually make him feel more lonely. And he’d discovered that cats generally didn’t like him. This was nice though. This was a part time pet. All of the fun but none of the hassle. Buying scratching pads, chicken feed and mealworms didn’t count.

He even enjoyed, occasionally, playing hide and seek or other chasing games with Cocky. They sometimes went running together through the preserve and Derek would carefully remove any burrs or twigs that got stuck in his feathers.  He also checked Cocky for mites, since it was due to him, to their daily outings, that Cocky was being exposed to potential parasites. He did notice some scarring along Cocky’s neck and bought some salve that would soften the tissue, applying it daily. The old injury was probably what caused Cocky’s crow to be so strange.

Okay, he was getting attached. But it seemed to be working out. His neighbor had crazy long hours, Cocky needed a friend and Derek enjoyed the company. 

xXx

“I think my cock is cheating on me!” Derek could hear his neighbor talking to someone. They were probably in a bedroom with a clear line of sight to his because it sounded like they were standing right next to him.

Someone answered, “I thought you’d stopped talking about your dick as a separate entity in eighth grade.”

“What? No, not- My- You know. Cocky!”

“Oh. Yeah. What’s he doing?”

“He’s always gone when I get home, then moseys on in pretending like he’s been here the whole time.“

“But, why is that a problem? He’s probably exploring the neighborhood. As long as he comes home, that seems okay to me. There aren’t any chickens in the neighborhood he could get into trouble even.”

“I’m gonna find him and put a stop to it.”

“Okay?” The conversation faded until Derek couldn’t hear their words, voices moving away from the window.

Derek wondered what ‘put a stop to it’ meant.

xXx

Two days later he found out. They were playing hide and seek and he’d given Cocky a twenty second head start from his bedroom upstairs. Derek could hunt by scent, but usually Cocky would make tiny little excited noises that gave away his location, so he didn’t even need to use werewolf senses. This time, Cocky had hidden in the living room under the accent chair. When Derek suddenly dropped to the floor and peeked under it, Cocky let out a blood curdling shriek and jumped out into the room, flapping his wings and hopping from chair to sofa to coffee table to mantle and all around again, still shrieking and crowing and cackling. Derek was in his beta shift, which he often did for fun -- it didn’t phase Cocky at all -- and was laughing too, so he did not notice the footsteps and the heartbeat approaching up the walk and onto the front porch.

Suddenly his front door burst open. Derek, still in his beta shift, turned to the intruder and roared and - Oh shit. The intruder was his neighbor, Deputy Stilinski.

“Holy fucking shit!” the deputy stumbled backward but the gun trained on Derek held steady.

“What the hell?” Derek’s words slurred around his fangs, but he raised his hands and concentrated on looking non-threatening. He retracted his claws, smoothing his features. His wolf was reigned in, but at this point, he wasn’t sure it that would help. His neighbor who was on the sheriff’s force now knew he was a werewolf. He was pretty much fucked.

“What the fuck are you?!” Stilinski yelled at him.

“Calm down. I- I’m a.” Derek was shifted back completely but he could feel his eyes glinting blue. “I’m a… werewolf.”

Deputy Stilinski was shaking his head back and forth, like a child who was told he’d have to give away his favorite toy. “No. No. No. No. This is not happening. And why are you holding my cock?”

Derek looked down and noticed that, yes, Cocky was cradled in his hand. He must have jumped into Derek’s arms in the excitement. “I… I don’t know.”

“I heard you torturing him. What the hell kind of… thing are you? What are you even doing here?”

“Uh. I live here? I wasn’t torturing him!”

“No, shithead! Like, a werewolf. Living in the suburbs. Shouldn’t you be in the woods somewhere, or a castle or something?”

“You read too many fantasy novels. Werewolves live perfectly-”

Deputy Stilinski was vigorously shaking his head from side to side again. “No. This isn’t right. You’re- You can’t just- No. You’re under arrest!”

“What?!”

“You’re under arrest for...reckless endangerment-” It almost sounded like a guess.

“What?”

“You’re all,” Stilinski gestured to Derek’s face and made claw shapes with one hand. The other still held the gun steadily on him. He grimaced and bared his teeth at Derek.

“That’s not a crime?” Derek said this hopefully.

“It. Could be! It’s worth investigating.”

“Are you serious?”

“Get on your knees.” Stilinski flicked the tip of his gun barrel towards the floor.

Derek groaned and followed directions, letting Cocky jump from his hand. Kneeling he put his hands behind his head.

Stilinski walked around behind him and Derek could hear the sounds of handcuffs jangling. One snicked over his right wrist, but before the second one was on, Deputy Stilinski started yelling.

“Ow! Ow. Fuck, Cocky. Stop it!”

Derek twisted a bit to look - not too much - he wouldn’t want to be accused of resisting arrest - and he saw Cocky pecking at the deputy’s ankles.

“Oh my god. You little turd. You’d rather he be your owner? Fine by me!”

Derek felt the air shift as Deputy Stilinski moved back from him a couple of steps. He didn’t move though. Who knew what state of mind the deputy was in. He could smell a jumble of emotions: fear, confusion, sadness. Desperation. Something about the deputy’s scent made his wolf want to curl up around him and lick his face. Which was. Weird.

After a few seconds of steadying breaths, on both their parts, he heard and felt the gust of a bone weary sigh. “Look. I’m. I’m gonna take the cuffs off you, okay? This kind of. Was not what I intended to happen. Okay? Here, I’ll just-”

Derek felt the cuff click open and slide off and he lowered his arms slowly. “So, I’m not under arrest?”

“No. No. I was - I don’t know. Taken by surprise. The whole werewolf thing. Shit.”  He holstered his gun.

“Yeah. I know. I mean. When we reveal ourselves, we try to do it in a situation, an environment where the person feels as safe as possible. This was pretty much the opposite of that.”

“Heh. Yeah. I’m sorry for kicking in your door.” They both looked at the front door hanging open and the splintered door jam. “Oh shit.”

“Oh.” Derek shrugged. “It should probably be replaced if a human can kick it in.”

“Hey! A highly trained human!”

“Okay.” He meant it to be genuine, but apparently Deputy Stilinski did not take it that way because he immediately punched Derek in the shoulder.

“Ow.” Was this normal behavior for a sheriff’s deputy?

“Oh my god. I’m sorry! Don’t go all growly on me or anything!”

“I was kidding. It didn’t hurt.” Derek shook his head and dipped his chin towards his shoulder. “Werewolf.” He flexed his arm where it was by his side. Stilinski’s eyes bulged and he groaned, putting his head in his hands.

“What is my life? My hot neighbor turns out to be a werewolf that I try to arrest for stealing my cock, but he turns out to be my cock’s best friend, who defends him until I’m a bloody scratched up mess. Yeah. That about sums it up.”

“You thought I stole your cock?”

“Yeah! He’s gone all the time, he won’t let me pet him, and I heard you torturing him.”

“Oh. No. Uh. We were playing.”

“You were playing with my cock?”

“Um. Yeah. We play hide and seek? He seems to like it? Like, I think those noises he was making was him, sort of, laughing. We do it all the time and he always sounds like that.”

“Uuuuggghh.” Stilinski dropped to the sofa. “My rude as fuck, hot neighbor can make my cock laugh and I’ve never heard that before and now I feel like a failure of a cock owner.”

“No. Don’t feel bad. I mean, it might be something that I thought up because I’m a werewolf. You know. Hunting...”

“What do you mean, hunting? You hunt birds? You eat birds and other tiny woodland creatures?”

“Well.” Derek grimaced and sat down on the sofa too. He shouldn’t have brought this up. “Very rarely.”

“So, those mountain lion attacks the other week…”

“What? No. That was  _ not _ me.”

“No, yeah! I didn’t mean that. But, maybe you could look at some of the evidence pictures? Do you think there’s a werewolf in the preserve? Because I talked to my friend who’s a vet and he said he he didn’t think the bite patterns could be mountain lions.”

“Oh. Well, I don’t think it would be a werewolf. At least, I don’t know of any in this area right now. But there are other things it could be, so yeah. I can look at the pictures.”

“Great!” Deputy Stilinski smiled as he pulled his phone out of his pocket and handed it over for Derek to put his name and number in it. When he took it back, he looked it over. “So. You’re a Hale. You lived here before, right? Out by the preserve?” He said it like he wasn’t surprised who Derek was.

“Yeah. I only moved back a little over a year ago though. You’re from here too?”

“Yeah. I’m, like, four years behind you or something. I think your sister was in my class?”

“Cora? You know Cora?”

“Not really. I mean I knew  _ of _ her. But then, everyone knew your family. After.”

Derek nodded and looked away. He didn’t automatically fall into the grief and guilt he would have a handful of years ago, but the mention still brought up painful memories.

He felt the sofa cushion dip slightly next to him and at first he thought Deputy Stilinski was putting his hand down or leaning closer, but then he heard soft warbles and realized Cocky had settled down between them. Did he sense Derek’s sadness? He stroked down Cocky’s feathers and scratched at his comb.

“So, my cock really kind of likes you. More than he likes me.” Deputy Stilinski sounded sad.

“No, that’s not true. He’s just making new friends.” Derek looked at the deputy thoughtfully. “Can I call you-”

Stilinski looked at him with a huge smile.

“-something besides Deputy Stilinski?” Stilinski’s smile faltered a bit, but then he burst out laughing.

“My name’s Stiles. At least, that’s what everyone calls me.”

Something tickled at Derek’s memory. “Mischief,” he whispered.

“Woah. Yeah, that’s me! That’s what they called me when I was a kid. Did you know me?” 

“I think I remember you from the city picnics. You were always running around? And someone was always chasing you, calling for you.”

“Yeah. I was a handful. Too much energy. Now we know it was ADHD, so. I’m better now.”

They both smiled and laughed and reached out to pet Cocky at the same time.  Their hands bumped but neither pulled away. They continued petting, fingers occasionally brushing each other.

“I mean. I see the appeal now. And I’m sorry about the early morning crowing.”

“I’ve gotten used to it. My schedule is pretty much shifted now. And he seems to be settled in, right? He’s not as loud.”

“Yeah. He just needed a good man. I mean,  _ friend!”  _ Stiles blushed and Derek wanted to bury his nose in his neck.

“Can we, maybe, go out sometime? Sometime when it’s not about department work?” Stiles asked tentatively, and Derek could hear his heartbeat elevate a little as he asked.

“A date?” Derek’s heart rate increased too. He doesn’t remember ever being this excited at getting asked out before.

“Yeah? But only if you’re interested. I mean. You wouldn’t feel pressured into it because I’m a deputy right? Because - well, not that-”

“I’d love to,” Derek interrupted and caught Stiles’ hand and squeezed.

xXx

“I thought I was going to have to arrest you for stealing my cock and since he’s worth so much,  _ and _ you were torturing him, it would become a felony.” They were standing outside Stiles’ door after their movie date.

“Again: Playing hide and seek with me is not torture.” Derek lifted his eyebrows. “And how is he worth so much money?”

“I got him when my last precinct broke up a cock fighting ring. He’s the offspring of a champion fighter who was a big money maker, hence his value.”

“Are you an animal rights activist? Is that why you kept him?”

“Huh? Oh, no. When we broke up the ring there were hundreds of cocks! He was wasn’t a baby or anything, but I think he imprinted on me. He followed me around and cried when they tried to put him with the rest, so I agreed to take him. Though, thinking about it now, it might have been his neck injury that made me think he was crying.  His voice is kind of messed up.”

“Let me get this straight. Your pet is worth a lot of money - for  _ illegal _ cock fighting. So you were going to arrest me. You almost did!”

“I didn’t think it through! And then the torturing! And then the whole-” he gestured at Derek’s face.

Derek caught Stiles’ hand as it was waving around and brought it to his mouth.  He smiled wickedly and let his teeth elongate just a little, catching a finger but avoiding his canines. Stiles inhaled sharply.

The sudden smell of arousal caught Derek by surprise, but it sent blood rushing to his- well, his cock.  Oh god. He’d have to stop using that word now. But it was nice to know that Stiles probably would not be put off by his shift.

“Come inside?”  Stiles asked huskily.  He was already fumbling his keys into the lock.  Derek nodded. As Stiles stepped inside, Derek noticed Cocky in the bushes at the side of the porch.  He held out his hand and Cocky flew into his arms, and they followed Stiles inside.

Derek had a good feeling about this, about everything. For the first time in a long time.

**Author's Note:**

> My [tumblr](http://gobsmackapplejack.tumblr.com) and my [sterek tumblr](http://mutualpiningandawkwardness.tumblr.com).


End file.
